Cathi Unsworth

In wartime superstition runs rife, but we've had to wait for Cathi Unsworth to draw out the strange links between spies, sorcerers and superstition in this, her latest and best novel. From the bones of almost unbelievable true-life events involving witchcraft and conspiracy in the mist-shrouded British countryside, Unsworth brings to life a Dennis Wheatley-esque cast of characters both real and imagined, and spins a superbly sinister mystery that had me hugging myself with delight.​(Christopher Fowler 2017-11-02)

With an exquisite feel for the English countryside, a sure eye for a lavish occult ritual and a colourfully sketched collection of raffish, bohemian characters, That Old Black Magic is a carnival of dark delights… (Declan Hughes, Irish Times 2018-03-24)

That Old Black Magic blends fact and fiction for a well researched, evocative tale about one of the weirder outposts of second world war British intelligence. (Laura Wilson Guardian 2018-02-17)

WEIRDO, that tale of teenage transgression within the fading glamour of an East Anglian seaside resort, has just made the transition to Spain with this beautiful new 'Muddy Mots' release from Sd-edicions, available HERE

It's been a long time since we did this particular working, but London Noir, the collection of short stories Cathi edited for Akashic's Noir series is now available on Audible.With original short stories by Barry Adamson, Joolz Denby, Sylvie Simmons, John L Williams, Mark O Pilkington, Des Barry, Joe McNally, Stewart Home, Ken Bruen, Patrick McCabe, Ken Hollings, Daniel Bennett, Martyn Waites, Michael Ward and Jerry Skyes – and the vocal talents of Jon Glover, Timothy Bentinck, Jane Slavin and David Thorpe.Tune in HERE

Originally commissioned by French journal Temps Noir, Cathi's pick of British Noir movies from 1947-65 begins with what came to be known as the 'Spiv Cycle' of movies and finishes in 1965 as the Angry Young men steal a march on British cinema with Bryan Forbes and Richard Attenborough's most unsettling collaboration. Taking in along the way the genius of Basil Dearden, J Lee Thompson, Carol Reed, Joseph Losey and many more, these are all films that made a big impact on Cathi's writing about crime fiction as social history and pop culture. Get the full scoop HERE

NEW AUDIO: CATHI'S MIXTAPE ON THE VOICE OF CASSANDRE

The Trans-Europe Express radio show the Voice of Cassandre asked Cathi to do a mixtape. No talk, just one hour of rocking good tunes, featuring The Tornados, Lydia Lunch, Barry Adamson, Gallon Drunk, Cesarians, Cardiacs and more HERE

NEW PUBLICATIONS…

EDITED BY TRAVIS ELBOROUGH & JOE KERRFEATURING: CHARLES DICKENS, WILL SELF, IAIN SINCLAR, VIRGINIA WOOFE, ELIZABETH WILSON, CATHI UNSWORTHNot merely a vital component of the city’s infrastructure, buses are equally embedded in London's culture; written about, sung about, joked about, filmed, painted (and painted on), advertised, and celebrated in myriad ways. For the many thousands of people who have depended on them for a livelihood – drivers, conductors, cleaners, mechanics, inspectors – they havecreated their own world, complete with a distinct language, with uniforms, with places, and with men and women of every imaginable culture and ethnicity.This new collection aims to celebrate the unique relationship that Londoners have with their most important mode of transport, telling you all the things you never knew about London’s lifeblood and how it’s kept the capital moving for more than a century. Tourists take the tube – but real Londoners take the bus.Every purchase supports the London Transport Museum’s charitable work. To order yours direct, go HERE

Cathi was delighted to be asked by Soho artist ROBERT RUBBISH to contribute the forward to his new book SPIRITUS SOHO, a culmination of his project to salute the Capital's most notorious and decadent quarter before the wrecking ball takes all. Robert's beautiful artworks (The Three Ages of Derek Raymond shown above) draw on his deep knowledge of Soho's history and the outsiders who made the place: "always up or down but never on the level," as Keith Waterhouse so beautifully put it. The book was launched at The French House, in the Bermuda Triangle area of Soho between Gerry's and The Coach and Horses where so many souls have disappeared before. Here are Robert and Cathi at the launch:

You can pick up a copy of SPIRITUS SOHO – and a limited edition print if you are feeling flush - directly from The French if you get there fast enough. Or you can order the book, priced £25 from HERE More about Robert and his work HERE

NEW! Read Cathi's feature on the Trail of Helen Duncan at The Revisionist

One of the major plot strands of That Old Black Magic is the trail of Scottish medium Helen Duncan, the last woman to be prosected in this country for Witchcraft at a sensational Old Baily trial in 1944. How did a 17th century law get evoked to persecute a woman for such a crime in the middle of World War II – and perhaps more importantly, why? Read Cathi's take on this still-controversial case HERE

Two of Cathi's columns from Financial Times' regular Saturday music column and podcast THE LIFE OF A SONG are included in the wonderful anthology of the same name, edited by DAVID CHEAL and JAN DALLEY. Fifty songs that have permeated the public consciousness are considered in their many differing guises – songs that have been born, reborn and sometimes hideously mangled on their journies through time and space. Contributing essays on the strange stories behind JOHN LEYON'S Johnny Remember Me and NANCY SINATRA and LEE HAZELWOOD's Some Velvet Morning, Cathi is in great company, including PETER ASPDEN, HELEN BROWN, BERNADETTE McNULTY and IAN McCAN, with subjects ranging from Amazing Grace, Dark Was The Night, Cold Was The Ground and Wade in the Water to Enter Sandman, Smells Like Teen Spirit and I Believe in Father Christmas…Published by Brewers/Financial Times the book is in bookshops nowpriced £12.99For more information, please go HERE

Cathi is included in the new anthology DEADLIER: 100 OF THE BEST CRIME STORIES WRITTEN BY WOMEN, Edited by that mistress of the field SOPHIE HANNAH. By strange coincidence, the title of Cathi's contribution is also that of a Lee Hazlewood song, TROUBLE IS A LONESOME TOWN and it sits alongside such diverse names as DAPHNE DU MAURIER, MARGARET ATWOOD and VAL McDERMID - just the thing to cuddle up with on those long, dark, winter evenings…Published by Head of Zeus, DEADLIER is in bookshops now priced £25

IT ALWAYS RAINS ON SUNDAY by Arthur La Bern London Books re-release of a classic London novel with an introduction by CATHI UNSWORTH

Cathi has been honoured to write the introduction for a new edition of Arthur La Bern's IT ALWAYS RAINS ON SUNDAY – the book from whence the 1947 Ealing classic film by Robert Hamer and starring Googie Withers came. Which is every bit as fantastic as its cinematic rendering. If you did Derek Raymond, awe awestruck by Alexander Baron and intoxicated by Patrick Hamilton, then Arthur La Bern is a writer you will want to know more about.

Born into the Islington streets run by Darby Sabini and his gang, Arthur was a Fleet Street crime reporter and war correspondent who flew with the Fleet Air Arm in the Pacific during WWII. Many of his novels were adapted for the screen, including GOODBYE PICCADILLY, FAREWELL LEICESTER SQUARE, which became Alfred Hitchcock's equally notorious FRENZY – which Arthur hated. He lived high on the hog and then fell from that distance, sleeping rough on Brighton beach towards the end of his days. Every experience filtered through to his hauntingly evocative descriptions of wide boys, working girls, hardbitten hacks and the coppers that chase them down, capturing vistas of a lost London and bringing them vividly back to life.

IT ALWAYS RAINS ON SUNDAY is available from LONDON BOOKS website, price £11.99. You can order a copy and find out more about other LONDON BOOKS titles HERE

Cathi chose The L-Shaped Room, discovered while researching her 2010 novel Bad Penny Blues. The book, and Bryan Forbes subsequent movie adaptation, vividly evoke the lost bedsitter land of West London in post-War, pre-swinging London.

From Child of the Jago to Brick Lane, London has always inspired novelists, seeking to present a sense of the city, whether real or imagined. Here, writers and historians take you through some of the captivating novels, past and present which depict London from East End boys to West End girls, bed-sit land to docklands, immigrants to emigrants, encompassing all of the diversity of human life.